From Bryan County Sheriff’s Office reports:
Public indecency: Deputies were called to a Highway 280 package shop May 2 because of a report of “a subject masturbating in the drive thru,” a report said. There, they talked to an employee who said a man came in with no shirt on and loose shorts, and wanted to “buy a juice,” but didn’t have enough money and left the store. The woman said “she began to stock the shelves behind the register with product. When she turned around, the (man) was outside the drive thru window (playing with himself). She went outside and began to yell at the suspect. The suspect ran through the woods to his home (on Highway 280).”
Deputies met with the suspect and asked him about it, but he denied it and said he’d been home all day. They reminded him he’d been spotted earlier in the day out walking, etc. He was taken to the shop and identified by the woman. He was arrested, and allegedly then admitted going into the package shop. What’s more, he was wanted in Chatham County, though the report didn’t say why.
Simple battery, etc: Two deputies were sent around 4 p.m. May 1 to a South Bryan subdivision community pool “reference to two females arguing and then it suddenly escalated into physical contact,” a report said. The first deputy to get there spoke with a woman who claimed “she was pushed and also hit with a saddle shoe,” by another woman. The woman also said another person, who had since left but was with the woman with the saddle shoe and another woman, had also tried to hit her “across the fence with her fist twice.”
The woman who said she got hit with the saddle shoe and another woman both showed deputies video footage, “and you can clearly hear the bad language in front of several small children in the pool area from (the woman who allegedly swung the saddle shoe and the woman with her).”
The deputy told those two women to leave and not come back for 24 hours and the complainant was told she’d get a report. The “offenders” appeared to have been drinking and said they were, the report said, also noting the woman who got hit with the saddle shoe wanted to press charges.
Suspended license, etc: A deputy patrolling Highway 17 on May 6 spotted an old SUV doing about 40 mph in a 55 mph zone with a tag hidden by dirt and a two hitch.
The deputy pulled the SUV over.
Turns out, the driver had a suspended license. He was arrested and eventually taken to Bryan County Jail. The female passenger was wanted in Effingham County, so she was arrested and taken to I-16 at Old River Road and turned over to an Effingham County deputy. The SUV was towed.
Damage to property: An Alabama man was driving east on I-16 in Ellabell around 10 a.m. May 3 when a tire from a semi in front of him “blew from the front drive axle,” a report said. “(The driver)who was traveling behind the truck was unable to avoid the piece of tire and was struck by the rubber from the blowout. Damage sustained to (his vehicle) was a black scuff mark on the front left lower part of the air dam and a panel which housed a proximity sensor was popped out of place.”
Marijuana: A deputy was sent to Richmond Hill Middle School on May 2 and when he got there an assistant principal gave him a clear plastic bag “and asked me to identify the contents,” the deputy reported.
It was pot. “Through my knowledge, training and experience, I identified the substance as a very small amount of mostly burnt marijuana.”
It had come from a student’s backpack during a search, and after a field test – which was positive – there wasn’t enough left to send to a lab. The school would take disciplinary action, the report said.
Property dispute: From a May 3 report comes this incident involving two Ellabell men. The first said the other ran over “two metal 5 foot poles, damaged two trees and two no trespassing signs,” and he, the first complainant, was blocking the lane so no one could get in. He said the damage to his property was $100 including labor, and that this was an ongoing dispute between him and the second man, also listed as a complainant, and that he was going to “put up a fence to block anyone from entering.”
The deputy told the first man he needed to take it to court.
The second complainant said the first owns the property, but there’s an easement and the first complainant “cannot place any barriers up blocking his easement rights. (He) also stated he would tear any fence down that (the first complainant) puts up.” The deputy said he’d make a report and “referred them both to the magistrate court.”
Property dispute: A deputy was sent May 5 to an Ellabell address regarding a dryer. The complainant said a man came onto his property and tried to get a dryer “that says it belongs to him,” a report said. The complainant disagreed, and said the dryer was “given to him as a gift and he is not returning it (to the man there to get it). The complainant also wanted a criminal trespass notice served on the man who came to get the dryer.
That man told the deputy the dryer was his father’s, and wasn’t given to the complainant. The deputy told him he needed to take it to court, then gave him a notice of criminal trespass and told him not to come back on the complainant’s property.
Theft by taking: An Ellabell man called BCSO on May 5 to report he saw a man on an ATV towing a trailer “go to two different newly built houses and take wood, PVC pipe and hay from these vacant properties.” The complainant said he then followed the ATV to his home before calling the law. The deputy checked out the new homes, which are vacant, and then spoke to the suspect, who said “he did take hay and wood which was sitting by the dumpsters,” but didn’t take any PVC pipe. “Some of the wood was in long strips and could be mistaken for PVC pipe,” the deputy noted. He also told the man he should call the contractor and let them know what he’d taken. “He stated he would do so first thing in the morning.”
Found property: A BCSO deputy reported May 5 he was taking a break at the I-16 Subway in Black Creek when he spotted “a small nylon black case.” He looked inside and saw credit cards, a driver’s license and $101 in cash. He ran the license number, found the woman and called her. She said she must’ve dropped it while going inside Subway to eat. She lives in Baxley. The deputy, David Ellis, reported he’d return the money the next day.
Property dispute: A South Bryan woman reported May 4 she bought her then-boyfriend an iPhone 8 in October and she’s still making payments, however her then-boyfriend is now her ex-boyfriend and he won’t give the phone back to her. She said he’s holding onto it “in order to extort money from her.” The woman also told the deputy that she and the man financed an electric fireplace together and claims “she has provided (him) enough funds to pay the fireplace off, however (he) isn’t using all of the money she provides to pay for the loan.” The woman was told to call the magistrate’s office to get a writ of possession.
Aggravated assault: Deputies were sent to an Ellabell address around 4:30 p.m. May 4 due to a report of shots fired, and one spotted a man with a blood stain on his clothes. The deputy told the man to stop and he ran into a home, but came back out later. The man, who was shot in the thigh, was taken to the hospital by EMS. The case is under investigation.
Criminal trespass: A South Bryan man reported May 4 that someone “had removed his mail from his mailbox and threw it on the ground.”
The man, who said he doesn’t think he’s missed any mail, also found mail from a neighbor’s mailbox on the ground. The lady who lived there didn’t know it had happened, had no idea who would’ve done such a thing, nor that she’s missing any mail. All the mail was wet from rain that morning, so there was no evidence available.
Fraud: A Richmond Hill woman reported May 2 that someone got hold of her bank information, ordered a $345 carburetor and had it shipped to her house. The woman said the same person also used her account to make $250 worth of money transfers in $50 increments, but she didn’t know where that money went. Her bank told her to have police do a report and the auto parts store told her to send the carburetor back and they’d refund her money.
Affray: Deputies were sent to an Ellabell address May 2 after a women reported that “three or four girls jumped on one girl and beat her down.” Eventually, authorities found the girl, who had gone to an EMS station for treatment. She said she was attacked because in 2016 she accused a male of “sexually assaulting her while she was in school,” and that the attack was in retaliation for getting the male into trouble. Deputies were able to get a few names from the girl and her brother.
Shoplifting: A Blitchton grocery store employee said May 1 she saw a man take a pack of ribs and put them “under his shirt and into his pants,” a report said. The woman said she confronted the man and “he denied it and even told her to search him. She said she wasn’t going to search him and she was going to call the police.”
The woman said the man left the store and got into a beat up green pickup and headed toward Effingham County on Highway 80. The woman said a customer came in and “said they saw him remove the ribs from his pants just before getting into the truck to drive off.” The woman said she’d check video to “make sure if he came in again that she would call so he could be identified and banned from the store.”